As heard in episode 169 of Cinema Crespodiso.
Of all the Spike Lee joints out there, “Inside Man” might be his more mainstream and easily accessible to general audiences. A slick bank heist movie, “Inside Man” stands out from most of the others because it is a little smarter and slicker than most movies of this kind, not just satisfied with the basics of a bank heist movie but instead going that extra mile to find a way to do something that has not been done before.
Clive Owen plays the leader of the gang of people who walked into a huge bank, took everyone hostage and created a crazy situation for the NYPD. Denzel Washington and Chiwetel Ejiofor are the detective who show up to the scene and attempt to deescalate the situation and find out what is going on. Christopher Plummer is the shady dude who owns the bank and Jodie Foster is the fixer hired to secure some sensitive and secretive information within the bank to keep the shady dude out of trouble. There are a number of moving parts in this story, and it all comes together pretty nicely in the end, as the final ten minutes of the movie provide the big reveals and pay off necessary to bring this whole thing home nicely.
Being directed by Spike Lee, there is naturally some commentary about race relations and gender perceptions and income inequality here and there, but for the most part “Inside Man” is Spike Lee’s most unapologetically commercial movie, as he seemed fine with actually making a movie whose prime directive would be to entertain the audience, as opposed to his usual fare, which seems to be in service of informing and enlightening audiences. Which is fine, because artists are allowed to indulge in both, whether separately or one at a time, and Spike Lee is no different.
